GOSPEL TRUTHS (PART 3)

Can I pray for you in any way?

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Here is a trustworthy saying:

If we disown Him, He will also disown us.

Keep reminding God’s people of these things.

2 Timothy 2:11a, 12b, 14a

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

In the second chapter of 2 Timothy, we find the Apostle Paul sharing a “trustworthy saying”, one that contains four truths about the Gospel and the Lord who made it possible. These four truths form the framework for this latest series and so far we have learned the following:

If one places their belief in Jesus and is in Him at death, then that person will also live with Him for all eternity.

and

If a Christian believer endures through a life that will bring more than its share of sufferings and hardships, then they will reign in glory with the Lord Jesus when this life ends. And of course, part of that glory will come through being liberated from any more difficulties and troubles to include sin.

This brings us to the third of these four messages and a Gospel truth that brings an ominous warning. For if believing in Jesus brings the promise of salvation and the joy of everlasting life in Heaven, then the denial of Jesus must bring the polar opposite, the absence of saving from an eternity of anguish, damnation, and torment in Hell. Look at these words from the second half of verse 12:

If we disown Him, He will also disown us.

What does it mean to disown someone one?

If we turn to a dictionary, we will learn that disowning happens when someone refuses to acknowledge that they belong to another. This often happens in families when a parent might choose to treat a child as if they weren’t born of them or maybe a sibling decides to treat another sibling as if they aren’t their brother or sister.

I definitely can relate to what it feels like to be disowned. Let me share a real life experience with you in two parts and associate it to this message.

The first part involves a special relationship the Lord brought me into with my current wife. We met while I was in the Navy and volunteering at a local elementary school where she was the assistant principal. I asked her to go to dinner with me and from that night on, I think we both knew that we were going to spend a lot of time together in life.

Now, before I go on, I need to let you know that there was only one major difference between my soon wife-to-be and myself. She was black and I was white. Of course, this was obviously no issue for either of us and I didn’t think it would be an issue anywhere within either of our families but I was soon to find out otherwise in a big way.

For after I knew our relationship was going to sustain, I called my parents to tell them about it. I was so excited because after being violated by infidelity which resulted in divorce, I had finally found someone who I could love and who made me feel loved again. And so, I told my father and mother about her and felt it was important to let them know she was black. I wasn’t brought up in a climate where there was any prejudice or bigotry and so I never dreamed race would be an issue but I quickly learned otherwise. Because from that day forward for quite some time, my father chose to cut me off. I had been disowned.

I can’t tell you enough about how hurtful that was. It also angered me that my own father would judge someone he had never met, just because of the color of her skin. At the time, my emotional pain was equally for myself and for her.

Now, go to our verse for today and look at it through the lens of Jesus, the One who willingly chose to suffer deeply and die so to make the way for a sinner (and we’re all sinners) to be reconciled with an Almighty God who despises sin. And He did it all out of love. Here’s what He said about what He was to do before He did it in the Gospel of John:

“Very truly I tell you, I am the Gate for the sheep...I am the Gate; whoever enters through Me will be saved.”

“I am the good Shepherd. The good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.”

“I am the good Shepherd; I know My sheep and My sheep know Me—just as the Father knows Me and I know the Father—and I lay down My life for the sheep. I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to My voice, and there shall be one flock and one Shepherd. The reason my Father loves Me is that I lay down My life—only to take it up again.” John 15:7, 9, 11, 14-17

Anyone who believes in Jesus enters through Him into His flock and is saved. He is their Shepherd and they are His sheep that He loves so much that He is willing to lay His life down for them. And that’s exactly what He did, bearing the sins of His flock on Calvary’s cross so they could appear sin-free before God on judgment day.

Now, there are people who are not in the flock. These are the people who have chosen to reject Jesus, to disown and disassociate from Him in life. Unfortunately, when death comes for that non-believer so does an eternal disowning by Jesus. That person will be counted with the goats, not the sheep, when Jesus returns and “go away into eternal punishment” (Matthew 25:31-46).

Paul’s command to Timothy (and to us) is to remind God’s people of this and that’s what I am doing today.

I could end this message here but there’s more to share and say before I close. First, I need to go back to my story because it really does have a happy ending.

That happy ending came about a year and a half after my father decided to disown me. I have three sisters and a brother who all live outside of my hometown in Pennsylvania and they had gotten together and planned a reunion. Naturally, they called me to ask if we would be coming and I asked about how my father was handling the idea. My sister told me he wanted to reconcile, a blessing to my ears but I had to first see it to believe it.

And so we made the eight hour drive north from Virginia and I will never forget going into my parent’s home and encountering Dad for the first time since he abandoned me. He started to weep inconsolably and kept telling me over and over and over again about how sorry he was for what he had done. I remember sitting next to him and telling him I forgave him. It was a powerful moment of reconciliation, one that would be transformative. More on that in a minute.

I delay because I need to share what happened when my wife entered the house and met my father for the first time. This time, he wept even harder. There was genuine anguish in his tears. I can’t imagine how he felt when my wife put her arm around him and said it was okay, that she too forgave him. It was something he couldn’t understand.

And then, she shared with him about Jesus and the way He forgives those who repent and come to Him for saving.

Friends, it was my father’s Damascus moment because from that point forward, he found a church and went every single Sunday. Having disowned the Lord for so long in his life, he who was once lost suddenly was found. He entered through the Gate and was counted a member of the flock.

Today, there are a lot of people who are like my father once was. Maybe it’s you as you read this. My prayer for anyone who has rejected and disowned Christ is that they will change the way they believe. I hope that they, like my father, will understand what real forgiveness and reconciliation looks like, and then embrace it from the only Savior who can bring it eternally.

If a person disowns Jesus and dies, then they too will be disowned by Him.

This is a Gospel truth. But so too will a person be saved if they accept and believe in Jesus as Savior before they die, cancelling their disownment and His as well.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.